Elon Musk Reveals True Goal for Neuralink Brain Chips

As Neuralink — Elon Musk's brain-computer implant company — opens recruitment for its first ever human trial, Musk dropped new hints as to his hopes for the long-term potential of the technology. And they seemingly have little to do with medicine.

On X, formerly Twitter, Musk said Neuralink — which requires a surgery in which a small portion of the skull is removed to allow the device to be implanted in the brain — will eventually "play a role in AI risk civilization risk reduction by improving human to AI (and human to human) bandwidth by several orders of magnitude."

"Imagine if Stephen Hawking had had this," Musk added.

Hawking, the world-renowned theoretical physicist whose work vastly enhanced science’s understanding of the universe, suffered for decades from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative neurological condition that made him reliant on a wheelchair and a text-to-speech computer to communicate.

In a subsequent post on X, Musk said Neuralink could be integrated with Tesla's Optimus robotics to enable humans to be fitted with robotic prosthetics, similar to Luke Skywalker's robot hand in Star Wars.

Other research involving brain-computer interfaces has shown promising results: in one 2021 study, a quadriplegic woman was able to feed herself chocolate with a robotic arm while a paralyzed man outfitted with implants in his brain and spine was able to walk up stairs earlier this year.

In a pamphlet for the Neuralink study, the company said it is seeking people with ALS or cervical spinal cord injuries as participants for the clinical trial. The clinical trial is designed to test the device's safety and the process by which it is implanted, as well as basic function. Ultimately, a participant could expect to use the implant to help them control a computer cursor, for example.